https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmXF-Jspmig

Episode transcript below:

Hey there! What’s up?

I’m really excited about today’s episode because I love to travel. We’re talking about world travel. Do you love to travel? Do you want to travel the world? Have you thought about how English can help take you around the world? You might have thought of this a little bit before. But in this episode, I’m going to share five reasons why I think English is the best tool to help you travel the world.

First of all, English is the most widely spoken second language in the world. So I don’t mean that it’s the most spoken native language in the world. There’s actually, more non-native English speakers in the world than native speakers, which is super interesting to me, because that means that wherever you go, you’re going to be able to use English to connect with other people that could be from any country, really. They don’t have to be from an English-speaking country and you might find yourself speaking more English with other English learners than you ever imagined. And so, this concept of world English is very, very useful. It means that, yeah, you want to be able to communicate with people from all different countries, so you need to be able to speak clearly, to have a wide array of vocabulary so you can understand different situations. And you want to have cultural knowledge, right?

So, a great way to do that is to build your vocabulary and clarify your pronunciation. So, again, the reason why English will help you to travel the world, the first reason, is that it is the number one second language in the world. Super useful! And in my travels, it’s been amazing. I’m so lucky to be able to speak English. I’m so lucky I’m a native English speaker because everywhere I go, from Thailand to Brazil, many, many people English and so they make it easy for me to travel. But if English is not your native language, then I encourage you to become fluent in it so that, wherever you go in the world, you can use it as a tool to communicate. And if you’re feeling like you want to be able to help other travelers that come to your city, it’s really awesome if you can use English to welcome foreigners in your country and to your city. So, English is just an awesome tool for that.

So instead of learning all the languages of all the countries that you may want to visit, you can really optimize your time and effort by focusing on learning English. Now, I love learning languages. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve learned Spanish, Portuguese, some French, Japanese – I love learning languages, and I think that learning as many languages as possible is just something that makes life wonderful. So I totally encourage you to learn a lot of languages, learn about a lot of different cultures, because I know how amazing that is. It lets us see the world through different cultures’ eyes. But we only have so much time in life, right? We all just have, you know, 24 hours a day, right? So how many hours can you spend learning a language in your day? Maybe it’s a good idea, I think, to focus on English. And when you reach English fluency, then you could try other languages, too.

Another reason why English is a great tool to help you travel the world is that it is the official language in sixty-five countries and territories around the world. And that doesn’t even include my country, the United States. Apparently, we don’t have an official language. But I would say that English is probably the best language to learn if you’re coming to the United States.

Another interesting fact is that the number of US citizens with passports is increasing. It’s at an all-time high. So, you’ll be seeing more Americans traveling around the world, maybe to your home country. And of course, other native English speakers love to travel. And so it’s a great way to connect with foreigners coming to your city,